This is my second year doing NaNoWriMo, and it was definitely harder than the first. I'll say it once, I'll say it again, I'll say it for the people in the back, I'll repeat it until I die. Writing is hard. It's taking something from nothing and putting it down on paper. This year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world pledged to write 50,000 words in a month.

November started with my aunt and her boyfriend arriving, which meant that we were going to have more people in the house for a while.

I love my aunt, and her boyfriend is pretty cool, but I have certain criteria that must be met for me to start writing. One of those is a quiet house, or an appropriate level of background noise. Aunts and little brothers running around screaming. That's one of the reasons why I like writing at my local Starbucks.

Another thing that hindered my writing was the fact that everybody in the house (Mom, Dad, Little Bro, Aunt, and Aunt's Boyfriend) got sick. Including me.

Anyway, one of the most important things about NaNoWriMo isn't that we write 50,000 words in a month. The most important thing is that hundreds of thousands of people decided to sit down and take something from nothing.

Anybody that did NaNoWriMo, I'm proud of you. And for the writers in my readership, please join me for Camp NaNoWriMo in March/April!

Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Night.
Anna Grace

Hi y'all! I'm breaking my hiatus to give you a little musing on something that happened while I was on my trip.

In a book I’ve been reading for my Duke TIP program, it described writers as neurotic. Now, I’ve looked it up, and neurotic is described as: abnormally sensitive, obsessive, or tense and anxious. (My first search yielded this answer: suffering from neurosis) 

I’ve spent a lot of time since reading that chapter, thinking about whether or not I could be neurotic. On the one hand, it seems completely plausible. I match all of the symptoms described, so why the hell not? On the other hand, I’m a teenager that once convinced herself that she had a terminal illness after reading WebMD for too long one day. 

The whole reason why I’m leaning towards the former answer is this flight. I spent the first five hours listening to broadway cast albums (Hamilton and Fun House) and different podcasts (Dear Hank and John, Alice isn’t Dead, and Within the Wires). As soon as I tried to listen to regular music and tried to get to sleep, I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, from moving my hands, from keeping my eyes open. It was horrible. The thing is, the moment I started writing this, I started to feel better, like I wasn’t going to need to sleep or anything. 

Of course this was all interrupted by bouts of semi-severe turbulence. 

The book that I had read was called, “Forest For The Trees.” It’s a great read for writers and other people alike.

Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Morning(?)
Anna Grace

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Announcement: I am getting on a plane tomorrow morning. 

Now back to our post about heart and gut wrenching movies on Netflix.

I wrote this while I was very emotional. Please forgive me, but also please read it.

This past week has been hard. It's been really super freaking hard. Not just for me, but for anybody with a heart. Unless, of course, you don't watch or read the news. 24 people have been killed this July in the States by police alone. 146 people are dead in South Sudan, killed on the eve of the fifth anniversary of their independence. There are so many more, but if I spoke of everybody that was killed this month, or even week, I'd be sitting at this desk for a long time.

Here are the names of the people who have died in the States this July as a result of a police gunshot:

July 7, 2016:

Vinson Ramos, California
Unknown, Alabama
Unknown, California
Micah Johnson, Texas

July 6, 2016:

Unknown, California
Unknown, Oklahoma
Philando Castille, Minnesota

July 5, 2016:

Sam Newby, California
Melissa Ventura, Arizona
Joshua Bolster, Oregon
Alton Sterling, Louisiana

July 4, 2016:

William Patterson, South Carolina
Unknown, Texas
Sidney Washington Jr., District of Columbia
Delrawn Small, New York
Anthony Nunez, California

July 3, 2016:

I have the honor of participating in the Duke University TIP eStudies program this year! Let me tell you how it's going so far!

     "You can't be serious Jenna. There's no way that you can do this with a clear conscience."
     "What do you mean?" Jenna whipped around. There was really nothing stopping her from doing it, and Trish knew it. Jenna was a whirlwind, always in her own mind, which made her dangerous. Her parents, gone. Her former life, gone. Her records, gone. The impact that she left, gone. Her friends, only Trish remained. And if Jenna went through with this, Trish might not even remain. After all, who could stick around with a certified psychopath?


"What do you mean?" Jenna repeated. "I am either going out for ice cream, or to commit a heinous crime. I'll decide in the car. Now get in."

So sorry for the lack of posts everybody! I've just been so busy these days. Just recently I reached an important milestone in my academic career, and I'm just so excited for what comes next! I'm also starting the Duke TIP program today, and leaving for a mission trip on Sunday. I'm definitely coming back from this summer with a whole lot of stories!

I'll probably find a lot of time to post after around July 29. Of course, I'll find time to post before then! I'm just so excited that school is over and I'm not as stressed. Anyway, I'm using a new word tracking software to make sure that I do my writing. I'll probably come out with a short story or something of the kind soon.

I'll see you guys later.

Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Night.
Anna Grace

I don't like to put my religious life out there on the internet, but I feel like this is something that I should post, just because I have a speech and I kind of want more people to hear it. Check it out below the break.

I've got to say, my favourite song from the soundtrack of Undertale is "It's Raining Somewhere Else," which appears when you are in the restaurant with Sans. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link to a brilliant play through by +jacksepticeye. Of course, if you really want to get the full experience of the game, you would support Toby Fox (the creator of the game) and spend the $10 on the game itself.

I'm not here to talk about the game, so much as the name of the song, and how it relates to me. In the scene that "It's Raining Somewhere Else" appears in, you deal with some pretty heavy stuff (that's all I'll say. No spoilers.).  So, the name really tells us about the nature of the situation with the protagonist and Sans.

I have an overdeveloped sense of empathy, so much to the point that I will let other people's problems get to me, and that affects my daily life and the lives of my loved ones. "It's Raining Somewhere Else" gives me a sense of peace, knowing that just because it's raining somewhere else, doesn't mean that I need to get all upset. Why should I get upset if I'm in Tokyo and it's raining in Kyoto?

Thanks for reading my little midnight ramble.
Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Night.
Anna Grace

I'm going to be quite honest here, Camp NaNo didn't go quite as well as I had hoped. What was supposed to be another great story writing adventure really just turned into me stressing over the ACT that I had to take and the different projects that I had going on. Not a lot of fun. But hey! At least I got a good lesson out of it!

     "It's your choice," The boy started. "You can continue your worthless life, or you can become someone who matters." The girl made a face.
     "You call being immortal, someone who matters?" She asked incredulously. "You will live a sadder, ongoing life, than I will in however many days I have left."
     "Twenty six."
     "What?"
     "I said twenty six. That's how many days you have left. Don't ask how I know, I just do."
   
     The girl took a few seconds to think this through. 'Twenty six days?' She thought to herself. 'No, that can't be right.'
     "You're lying." She decided. "You have to be lying. There is no way that you could know that. I choose not to believe in you, and in not believing in you, you cease to exist. Goodbye Bennet." Bennet looked down at his slowly fading hands.
     "No, Chloe! Don't do this! Please!" But it was too late, for he was no longer audible above the sound of Chloe sobbing, mourning her lost love.

I have had friends who have wanted to do NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo, but have been scared that they wouldn't finish or that they would run out of ideas. This is why, for me, planning is essential. That being said, I didn't really have a very elaborate plan for NaNo15. Of course, that's not saying that I didn't have a plan at all. I had a vague idea of where the story was going to go, and even if it's that bare, you still need some sort of plan. 

I've reached a bit of a roadblock in my writing, and would like to take this opportunity to correct a myth that's been going around the internet for a while.

I know it's been a while since I've written, and that's because I've been in the Japanese countryside for the past couple of weeks. The first weekend was with my church as a part of the youth ministry. We pretty much played in the snow and learned more about our selves in the context of God and Christianity as well as our strengths. This past week I was in Hakuba where I skied and watched movies. So, as you can see, there hasn't been a lot of time to write. Today I'm going to talk about what I did today though.

I'm weird, and you should know that by now. You see, I'm not like most teenagers (When I say that, I mean it. This isn't the opening of some chick flick.) I mean, how many other teenagers do you see rapping the entire opening of It Takes Two by DJ EZ Rock and MC Rob Base? How many other teenagers do you see writing novels and going to school in Japan? How many other teenagers are Anna Roberts? Let me tell you, none. There is nobody else like me, and I guess that starts my message for today.

I spend a lot of time writing. I also spend a lot of time on the internet. Let's talk about what we're going to do.

Hi everybody! I've been sick, and let me tell you it sucked. I'll start at the beginning.